A Ghost's Pastime
by Aedammair
Summary: Have you ever noticed how ghosts have the worst habit of showing up at the most inopportune times? An Aeda Harrison and Daniel Jackson story that picks up where we last left off.
1. Getting Back in the Swing of Things

Death isn't easy, it isn't fair, and it most certainly isn't accomodating.

An Aeda Harrison/Daniel Jackson story (there are four so far).

* * *

It is January 25th and it has been exactly 5 months since Daniel Jackson disappeared off the face of the universe.

The spring semester started three days earlier, though Aeda Harrison missed the first day of classes because she had a panic attack in the parking lot and had to get Karen Jefferson to drive her home. Because of this delay, she is seeing her students for the first time. There are fifty fresh faces gazing at her from amongst the lecture hall bleachers and she finds herself slowly panicking. She takes a deep breath and wills the fear away.

It has been a little more than eight months since she last set foot in a lecture hall. A little more than four months since she finally crawled out of bed and acknowledged the existence of the world, and as those faces stare at her she wonders if it was too soon.

There is a single familiar face among the crowd, that of her graduate assistant Greg. She smiles widely at him, mostly in relief, and is happy to see him return it with an almost imperceptible nod of encouragement. She takes a deep breath, pulls her incredibly bushy hair up into a messy ponytail, and turns to her students with what she hopes is perceived as confidence.

"Good morning," she says and is pleased to hear it repeated back to her in a chorus of eager voices. She reasons that these students must be juniors and seniors, as she has never taught a class of freshmen and sophomores that sounded that awake and functioning at ten o'clock in the morning.

"Welcome to Quantum Theory, a class in which we will discuss just about anything. Including black holes, wormholes, alternate dimensions, parallel realities, and anything else you've managed to digest from science fiction and feel like throwing at me."

The class smiles at her and she begins to feel comfortable again. She walks around the desk, sits on the edge of it, and surveys her students. They seem to fit all manner of stereotypes – from the jock, to the diva, to the science nerd, and even, in two cases, the clandestine Russian mafia. She explains her goals for the semester, has Greg hand out the syllabus, and fields questions about her teaching methods like an old pro. Even with the New England winter raging outside, she feels a familiar warmth spread through her that she hasn't felt in months.

She has missed Daniel every second of every day and in doing so has forgotten that she misses teaching almost as much.

She glances at her watch, which tells her she still has twenty minutes of their time. When she glances up, she catches the eye of a young woman dressed completely in black, save the yellow scarf tied around her neck. Aeda smiles at her.

"What's your name?" she asks.

The woman blushes, two rosy spots appearing at the high points of her rounded cheekbones. Aeda instantly feels a rush of affection for her. She thinks it may be because in that moment, in her short-lived embarrassment, Aeda sees herself in the young woman.

"Madeline Goodman. Maddy."

This is one of Aeda's favorite names and she feels her smile widen. "Do you read science fiction novels, Maddy?"

Madeline shakes her head, her long fingers playing with the frayed ends of the scarf as though separate from the rest of her body. "No, but I watch science fiction TV shows."

"No one reads anymore," Aeda exclaims in mock exasperation and a soft wave of laughter flutters across the students. "Don't worry – I intend to change that in due time." She smiles at their groans and returns her attention to Madeline. "Well, then, what is your favorite sci-fi show?"

The woman smiles. "I loved _Quantum Leap_ as a little girl and I'm a huge _X-Files_ fan." Madeline pauses, looks at Aeda with a thoughtful expression. "Do you think a person could really do that, leap from one body to the next?"

"Stranger things have been known to happen," a male voice states from the back of the classroom and Aeda shifts her gaze away from Madeline's round face to seek out the student speaking. When her eyes finally land on his face she has to bite down on her lip to keep from yelling out in shock. The man is instantly familiar, in a way that makes the bottom drop out of Aeda's world, and she finds herself growing dizzy with the realization of it.

When she had first arrived at the SGC, Jack had told her a story about the two times they'd lost Daniel, about how he had died and had ascended and had come back to them as good as new. For the first month after Cameron had handed her Daniel's dog tags, she'd waited for him to arrive in her bedroom, to comfort her and tell her that he'd be back someday.

He never came and a small part of her, the angry part, believed it was because he didn't love her enough, that if he really did love her as much as he had said, he'd find any way back to her – Ancients be damned.

Now, dressed in his academic uniform of jeans, dress shirt, and corduroy blazer, he had returned and she can't help but wonder if she is hallucinating his presence. She looks at Greg and is not all that surprised to see concern and worry on his typically smiling face.

"Greg, do you see that man in the corduroy blazer back there?"

Greg looks up at the back of the lecture hall and then back at her. The concern and worry have equally tripled. "Dr. Harrison, there isn't anyone back there."

"I was afraid of that," she says quietly.

Daniel smiles at her, waves, and puts his feet up on the back of the chair in front of him. She doesn't know whether to be scared silly or absolutely furious. So, in order to delay the decision of which emotion to portray, she does the next best thing: she passes out and hopes that Greg will somehow manage to catch her before she hits the floor.

* * *

Thanks to all my reviewers - you guys rock! Oh, and a big shoutout to Verb, katejones2005, and Terelou who left me reviews for the last Aeda/Daniel story I wrote - I know it was sad and I thank you for it. :-)

Thanks for reading!!!!


	2. One Hell of a Right Hook

In the hazy dim of her self-induced dreamlike state, Aeda is aware of two very distinct things and neither gives her comfort.

There are hands supporting her, strong hands that do not feel at all familiar.

She has just seen a ghost of a man she was supposed to marry.

It is the awareness of the latter that truly discomforts her. She thinks back to the end of September, to when Cameron Mitchell arrived on her doorstep and refused to leave until he was absolutely certain that she was glued back together, a slightly cracked but solid version of herself. It took two weeks, but she did it. She even managed to find most of the pieces of her broken heart and she barely notices now when a beat will skip over an empty place.

Yes, in theory she was doing okay right up until a moment ago when Daniel waved at her and she realized no one else could see him.

Her eyes fly open and the scene is revealed in blinding fluorescent light. Greg is hovering above her, his hands supporting her from her prone position on the floor. There are a few students lingering and she realizes that many of them have left.

"I passed out, didn't I?" she asks and Greg nods sharply. "Sorry about that."

He helps her up and into a sitting position. She takes a deep breath and looks about at the worried faces. She smiles wanly and motions to Greg to help her stand. She makes it to her feet just as Karen Jefferson barrels through the classroom door, a brightly colored tornado that pushes students out of the way.

"What the hell happened?" she asks and Aeda fights the urge to roll her eyes.

"I passed out."

Karen stares at her and Aeda is suddenly terrified that the older professor's steely gaze can see right through her, can see the reason behind the incident. Finally, Karen blinks. "Come on. I'll take you home."

Aeda nods, thanks Greg, and follows Karen from the classroom. They walk to Aeda's office and when the door shuts behind them, Karen takes her friend's arm and they sit on Aeda's ancient sofa.

"What really happened?"

Aeda hesitates. Of everyone she knows at the university, Karen is the most open-minded, the most willing to accept the impossible. Perhaps it is this that Aeda relies upon as she relates her story.

"I saw Daniel in the lecture hall."

Karen's eyebrow rises. "As in the very sexy, very deceased Daniel?" Aeda nods. "Oh."

"I'm going nuts, Karen."

Karen shakes her head and smiles. "No, you're not."

"Then how do you explain it?"

The tone of Karen's smile shifts and Aeda sees sadness in the older woman's face. "You still love him, you still miss him, and maybe, if there truly is a greater power up there, you really did see him in the lecture hall."

Aeda frowns. "You don't believe in God, Karen."

"No, but I believe in you and that's what counts." She stands and pulls Aeda up with her. "Come on. Get your coat and your bag and I'll take you home."

* * *

As she stands at her porch door with a cup of coffee warming her hands and a mid-winter Nor'easter raging outside, Aeda reasons that it was all just a hallucination. She hasn't been sleeping well and there's every great possibility that the reason Daniel appeared in her classroom was because she wanted so badly to see him that she imagined him out of thin air. It's a long shot but as she sips her coffee and mulls it over, she begins to convince herself that it's the truth.

It is just past three in the afternoon when she settles onto the couch with Bear to watch a movie, something she rented over the weekend but never managed to watch. She falls asleep to the ramblings of Ralph Finnes and dreams of Daniel. They are standing side by side, watching the sun set over the lake in Colorado and he is holding her hand. He squeezes her fingers and she smiles, turns to look at him, but he is gone. She's alone and the sky is growing dim, the orange and red light washing over her as she stares at the empty space beside her.

She wakes to find Bear missing from the couch and she wonders if he found the movie just as boring as she did. She throws the mohair blanket off and sits up, rubs the sleep from her eyes. She has just regained her bearings when she hears a sharp bark from her bedroom and the hairs on the back of her neck stand up in anticipation of…something.

"Bear?" she calls and is slightly surprised when he doesn't immediately appear. She takes a quick look at her watch and discovers that she has been asleep for over three hours and that it is well past the aging mutt's dinnertime. She stands and walks down the hallway to her bedroom, the door to which is closed partially. She pauses, hears a voice, and cautiously pushes the door open.

"Have you been a good dog?" Daniel asks as he scratches Bear's head and Bear's tail wags a hundred times per minute. The scene is so familiar it takes Aeda a full sixty seconds to realize that Daniel is dead and should not be making a fuss over her dog, nor should he necessarily be in her bedroom.

Daniel looks up from Bear and smiles at her. "Don't pass out on me, Aeda. Although, it is nice to know I still have the ability to make a woman swoon."

She is instantly furious. "You bastard," she says, her voice low and murderous.

Being dead has not dulled his sense of her moods and his smile fades. "I owe you an explanation, I know, but there wasn't time before and I couldn't get to you until now."

She takes a step towards him, is somewhat satisfied to see him take a small step backwards, away from her. "You went off and became a goddamn Ori. _That_ requires an explanation, Daniel. It's more the dying afterwards that I'm seriously pissed off about – _that_ deserves a PowerPoint presentation with color charts and graphs."

She is close to him, close enough to know that he smells just the way she remembers him smelling, and it takes all her resolve to stay distant from him, even if it is a few inches. She wants nothing more than to throw herself into his arms, to unbutton his shirt and feel his skin against hers.

She bits down on her lip to keep from rushing into him and as she stares at him she tastes copper in her mouth.

"You're bleeding," he says and reaches out with his thumb to wipe it from her lip.

His touch makes her head explode and she can feel the vibrations of it all along her spine.

"You can touch me," she says, a thousand different thoughts running through her mind. He nods. "You're not a ghost."

He shakes his head very slightly. "No, not a ghost. Something much different."

"Ascended," she says and he nods once more.

Even in this newly omniscient Ancient state, Daniel doesn't see it coming.

Aeda's glorious right hook, the one thing Jack O'Neill taught her that was of any value, connects with Daniel's ascended jaw and snaps his head back. They slump to the floor at the same time and she shakes her fist out, cursing every so softly under her breath. He holds his jaw.

"What was that for?" he asks, outraged.

"Dying and leaving me."

They stare at each other for a long moment and Aeda realizes that on the floor they are even closer than they were in their standing positions. She can feel his solidarity and it breaks her resolve. He's real and he's corporeal, and he's centimeters away from her.

She grabs him by the front of his shirt and pulls him to her, crushing his mouth with hers in a kiss that she has longed to give for six months. When finally they break apart, each breathing heavily, their foreheads touching, Daniel asks her the same question.

"And what was that for?"

She smiles for the first time since his arrival earlier in the day. "Coming back."


	3. We Forget What Little We Can

There are people we meet that we can never forget and it makes me wonder just why we forget at all...

Disclaimer: Daniel isn't mine, but Aeda is me, 110.

* * *

The sunlight that filters through her yellow curtains is winter sunshine – cold and bright and reflected through icicles that have been growing for days. She opens her eyes slowly and blinks against the brightness. These are her favorite kind of winter days, just after it snows and the world is blanketed in white perfection.

She rolls over onto her side and smiles at the man seated across from her. He is wearing the clothes she kept even after he was gone – jeans and the heavy grey sweater with wooden buttons and elbow patches that he laughed at when he saw it in the window of the store. She bought it for him anyway and whenever he visited Boston in the cooler months he wore it. She can remember the last time she saw him in it and she knows that it still smells of him because even in the middle of a brutal summer heat wave, she pulled it out and put it on, just so she could feel him.

It makes her smile widen to see that the bruise from her right hook is still visible on his cheek. Ascended being or not, they probably should have iced it instead of moving on to other...more interesting...things.

He returns her smile. "Good morning," he says and sips what she's fairly certain is freshly brewed coffee.

"Ascended beings make coffee?" she asks.

"It's all about helping people, Aeda," he says with mock seriousness and she laughs as she pulls herself up into a sitting position. He leans over and hands her the coffee mug. "I also made pancakes."

They're avoiding the pink elephant that has found its way into the room. She doesn't want to discuss the after, doesn't want to talk about what happens next. She just wants him, here and now.

She sips the coffee and tries to ignore the fact that her heart has skipped a beat. "Do you remember the last time we had pancakes?"

He nods slowly and she realizes that the pink elephant in the room is beginning to take up more space than before.

"The morning of the day I proposed. June 28th."

The crack in her heart is beginning to widen – it feels as real and tangible as the stone coffee mug in her hands.

"You can't stay, can you?" she asks in a voice that registers just above a whisper.

He shakes his head very slowly and she tries desperately to ignore the tears in his eyes. He's never cried in front of her and she cannot bear it – cannot bear his good-bye – if he does now.

"It doesn't work that way, Aeda." He leaves the chair and sits on the bed beside her. Bear joins them and when he lays his bony head on Daniel's knee she feels her heart break.

The words spill from her like pearls from a broken necklace. "I can't do this. I thought I could, I thought if I saw you and said good-bye that I'd be able to go on, but I can't, Daniel. I can't."

She's breathless and he takes the mug from her before wrapping her in his arms. The familiar feeling of wool against her cheek brings tears to her eyes and she grasps onto him with all her strength. He tries to console her, says nonsense things to her, but it doesn't help.

"You _can_ do this, Aeda. You have your family and Bear and Jack. You don't need me here with you. I'll still be around, just not…here."

She pulls back from him and his thumbs gently brush tears from her wet cheeks. He kisses her and quiets the sob that is threatening to escape her lips. She breathes him in, tries to memorize the way he feels, the way her body responds to him. She would do anything not to forget and the fear that she might one day is agonizing.

"I love you," she says as they break apart. "More than anyone before, more than anyone after."

Tears escape his eyes and he kisses her again, harder and longer than earlier. "I love you, too, Aeda."

They hold onto each other for what feels like an eternity. Finally, he looks her in the eye and smiles very slightly. "Do you remember what I said to you that night on the phone?"

She smiles slightly as he pulls away from her and stands. "What are you wearing?" she asks.

He laughs. "Close." He leans over her, kisses her forehead, and leans back. "See you soon, Aeda."

"See you soon."

He reaches his hand out and rests it against her cheek. She closes her eyes, feels the warmth of him, and when she opens them again he is gone. She takes a deep breath. Beside her, Bear whines very softly and she rests her hand on his back.

"I know," she says. She glances out the window at the bright blue sky and perfect white snow. It hurts to look at, but she does it anyway.

It hurts to breathe, but she does it anyway.

It will hurt to be without him, but she understands and she will do it anyway.

Carefully, like mending a piece of lace, she weaves her broken heart back together.


End file.
